BAD experience. BAD BAD BAD experience.
I love my local Circuit City (Newnan, GA). I try to make all my BB vs. CC purchases there thanks to their much-better customer service and return policies. That said, I absolutely abhor Douglasville, GA's Circuit City. There is a manager there who refused to honor the $79 GeForce4 Best Buy pricematch in Spring of this year. I had to come back and talk to someone else when he wasn't there the next day and barely got mine. That was Best Buy's OUT THE DOOR price, plus I had the unopened Best Buy product and receipt IN HAND to prove it. There was no wheeling and dealing. They asked why I didn't just buy another at Best Buy (Can you believe it? Actually discouraging a sale!). I even had a response to that: "Because I'm much more likely to get a 'lucky' AGP8x version in the box." It didn't matter to that guy.
I just happened to make the 100+ mile trip to Douglasville yesterday for the Best Buy Compaq X1050 Centrino laptop deal. The tag for the HDD @ CC said $99.99 AR. I asked CS if there was a second rebate "because I heard that there was." They said I would have to buy it to find out! I said I would check my local Newnan, GA store for the $69.99 price first. We were out of time so I had to take my brother to work. He left me with his Circuit City credit card. Newnan didn't have any drives on display, so I asked and an employee brought one out for me. CS said only my brother could use the card, so they said they would put it aside and he could buy it on one of his breaks from work. He didn't get his usual break, and it was no where to be found this morning. So it was time for another 100+ mile trip to Douglasville.
Douglasville still had two. Great. One for me and one for my brother (And both for our upcoming RAID5 file server). The price was now correct (Showing $69.99 after $70 MIRs), though it was not the day before. I bought it at CS and both rebates printed out. Because the YB273 rebate was no longer available for print-out online, I took a printout of the scan with me to prove it exists and either get them to somehow print it out or adjust the price. It was CLEARLY a valid rebate for which I qualified for and had no other way to claim. I showed the CSR and she said that it was replaced by the new rebate. I explained VERY casually that the other rebate is still valid on all purchases of this drive through December 24th and that overlapping rebates have happened in the past. I even explained that it appeared that they would have to either find a way to print the form or adjust the price because the form was no longer available online and the purchase I had just made clearly qualified for it. She called notorious Mr. Kevin Ritenour, Sales Manager over. Of course, they expected *me* to prove that YB273 exists, when they know very well that all I have is a scan and that only they can prove it. He gave me *maybe* 2 minutes of his time. He interrupted me at least three times during those two minutes to say things like "You can't stack rebates, you can only get the $70 rebate." I would immediately point out that there is no $70 rebate and that they are two different qualifying rebates ($40 & $30) with different rebate numbers which were BOTH valid, and that I am simply referring to a THIRD valid rebate. He and the CSR said something like "Well, what does it say on the tag?" To which I would answer "$69.99 after $70 rebate" and they would say "See, then that's what you get. You ONLY get what the tag says and that's our policy." I explained that just the day before both rebates were valid and yet the tag said $99.99 after $40 rebate. Both would have printed had I bought the drive the previous day. They would say something smart-alecy like "Well, when did you buy the drive? Today. So there." My reply went something like "You missed the point. You said that the offer on the tag was correct and I was not, yet I just discredited that by pointing out yesterday's discrepancy. My point is that the tag IS wrong and WAS wrong." He basically told me AGAIN that NO rebates are stackable and that I would only get "the $70 one" and, while I tried to correct him again, HE WALKED AWAY FROM ME (There is no $70 rebate. $70 can ONLY be obtained by stacking the other two rebates). WTH?! You DO NOT EVER do that to a customer! He gave me at most two minutes of his time and didn't even give me the chance to get his name. I followed him to finish what I was saying and get his name and he said I was harrassing him. We made a full circle around the store (I'm sure he felt like an idiot) before he gave me his business card. My brother had returned the drive by the time I got back to CS.
Now what? The rebate phone number is closed for the holidays and today was the last day that rebate was available. How can we PROVE that this rebate exists?! ONLY CC can do this and yet they refuse! I need this before I write someone... I will get the fifth and sixth 1200JBs I need for my RAID5 setup.
I can't use someone else's rebate scan because the transaction codes are different. I can't use the online print out because it's not available anymore. I can't use s copy of someone else's online printout (From before) because the barcode is apparantly customized to the data one enters before-hand.
Did anyone else get them to adjust the price to compensate for the valid yet unobtainable rebate? If so, how did you convince them to? I have a feeling that this all would have turned out differently had my mother asked for the price instead...